Baby It's Cold Outside!
- Jun 24, 2015
- 5 min read
It's time to say goodbye to the lovely Ruby as we head back to Melbs with all of our 88+ days! Yippee! If only we had discovered WWOOFING and Leanne sooner! Truth be told, it's a really nice feeling heading back into the city knowing we are now free to do what we like! And we love it!
This time round, we are going to really look after ourselves. For a start, we've taken cheap noodles off the menu and replaced them with lots of fresh vegetables from the market. The Mad Cat Lady has thought us that you don't need meat everyday. We try to have it once or twice a week as a treat. Thankfully, we are back to cooking proper meals and they really don't cost that much.
In Melbourne, there are so many nice spots. One of myself and Jason's favourites is 'Albert Park' which is home to a huge lake. It's always so peaceful with the odd jogger here and there. If we have anything to discuss, usually about 'The Big Adventure,' we come here! Because of the sheer size of the lake, it's a good spot to thoroughly talk things over! And of course, it is really beautiful especially during sunset with spectacular views of the city skyline in the background.
One of our main goals this time round, is to get fit and healthy! Not only are we eating better food, we have even joined a gym. And it's only a couple of minutes walk from where we are staying, over the local supermarket. It feels great to be part of a gym again. The two of us even went to our first yoga session together. I think I found it a lot more difficult than Jay. We've only gone the once and I should really go back as it would be very good for me!
Coming back to 'Urban Central,' we quickly got back to our working for accommodation duties. Jason was clever enough to get his foot into the nightly barbie's. All he has to do is set it up with Lucy (We will talk about her in a moment) and then serve to the customers. While Bruno from Brazil cooks them. They can choose between $1 hotdogs or $2 hamburgers. After completing my first shift I said to myself, there is no way I am working with Lucy. She is an absolute nightmare. When we were finishing up, I went out the back to get something and got locked out. She didn't even wait for me. I later found out that she felt the same way about me. With lucky, she puts a wall up and very rarely does it come down. Of course, myself and Jason pulled it down. With no wall, Lucy is actually a really nice girl. She is from South Africa but her parents originate from Wales having emigrated in the eighties when everyone was fleeing from SA. Brave or stupid? Who knows! The three of us have become really good friends! And for once, her name isn't Kathrin! We have also become really good friends with Bruno as well, who is a really nice, interesting character.
When it comes to work, Australia has been a lot more generous to Jason than it has been to me. I've gotten bits of jobs including helping setting up a large Christmas trade fair, working with 'Vixon & Velvet' to create their outback themed stand. I never really understood the amount of work that goes into setting these shows up. Having worked my longest ever day of a total of fourteen hours, there is nothing I won't do! One of the coolest gigs I got was working with 'Cricket Australia' for the day. Their offices are right next to 'The MCG' (The Melbourne Cricket Ground). In case the players need any kit, they keep a small, but still, a substantial supply in the basement of their main offices next door. I was brought into box everything up as the whole kit was being replaced with a new one. The best part was that I could bring home what ever I liked. Lets just say, I made huge cricket fan Lucy's month!
One of my more secure roles was working in a call centre for 'BMS Telecorp' contacting 'Australia Post' business customers. The role was very boring but I made some really good friends, including Richard and Katie from England and Daniel from back home in Rathfarnam. It's a very small world! The team were definitely the best part about the job. Once a week, we would all go out together for a bit of socialising out of the office. Working on a new campaign for Australia Post which involved businesses signing up for a monthly newsletter, I was given the boot after a couple of weeks for supposedly given the wrong information to a customer, which I still believe to be correct!
While life in a hostel can be sometimes a little bit boring, other times it can be rather interesting especially when the fire alarm goes off. Apparently one of the kids staying on the third floor decided to light a cigarette in the room and the mattress caught fire. We later found out that the sprinkler system was only twenty seconds from going off. What a scary thought as all of our things would have been destroyed and we would have ended up homeless. Doesn't bare thinking about!
In a hostel you really do meet some interesting characters. One of them is middle aged Indian/Malaysian woman, Sandra. All you hear from her is 'Darling Darling.' Cooking any food that looks reasonably nice and your bound to hear in her most flamboyant voice 'Darling Darling, can I have a bowl?' Jason always says 'Of course you can.' I always whisper 'F**k off! I'm sorry, but it is very annoying especially every time you go to sit down, she always comes over looking for food. Our only saviour is her response when we tell her that we are cooking beef. Again, in her ever most flamboyant voice possible, 'No darling, can't eat beef darling.' You would be surprised the amount of food that contains beef (Wink wink)!
With all of our farm days complete and with the cash to pay for our two visa's, it's time to apply for our second year visa. Thinking we could just apply online and we would then hear back straight away that they had been granted, how wrong were we. First off, due to my illness last year, I was required to go for a full medical examination which I had to pay extra for. After getting that done, it then turned out that both of us, yes, both of us were being investigated. After submitting all the necessary paperwork, I was quickly granted mine while poor Jason was still waiting on his. If only he had read his emails sooner, he would have discovered that they requested him to have a chest xray. He wasn't granted his visa until the day before his current visa was due to run out. Talk about cutting it fine. With endless amounts of obstacles in our way, even at the very end, 'Hello Year 2!' Looks like 'The Big Adventure' will remain down under for another twelve months!
Since returning to Melbourne, life has been a rollercoaster with so many ups and downs! Of course, there has been more ups than downs and with Winter giving way for Spring, warmer weather and brighter evenings are on the way as nature comes back to life again!
By Andrew
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